::: a
special four-part series on The Matrix

While the stated reason for the early
release and accelerated post-production process of The Matrix
was to beat the marketing hype that surrounded The Phantom Menace,
it is not without coincidence that The Matrix was released
on the last Easter weekend of the dying twentieth century. It is
a parable of the original Judeo-Christian worldview of entrapment
in a world gone wrong, with no hope of survival or salvation short
of something miraculous. The Matrix is a new testament for
a new millennium, a religious parable of the second coming of mankind’s
messiah in an age that needs salvation as desperately as any ever
has.

Keanu Reeves plays Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer by day
who spends his nights in the alternative reality of the Internet,
where he goes by the name Neo, spending his time among hackers and
phreaks who have come to rely on his expertise. Symbolically, Reeves’
character plays that of both new convert and Christ in the film
and is on the receiving end of some of the world’s most ancient
wisdom wrapped in some of the best modern technological analogies.
"You are a slave" and "We are born into bondage" are the two sentences
Morpheus speaks to Neo that reveal the biblical analogy to the Judeo-Christian
understanding of slavery to sin. Like the biblical understanding,
our technoslavery
is a bondage of mankind’s own making, a product of our own
free will, as evidenced by Agent Smith’s revelation that this
is the second Matrix. The first Matrix, Smith says, was perfect,
but we humans decided we wanted to define ourselves through our
misery, and so we couldn’t accept it. This is the technological
version of the Garden of Eden story from Genesis. There we see that
the very first use of technology was clothing, so it is significant
that Neo is reborn completely naked.

Within that framework, The Matrix is also the story of
the chosen one’s doubts, slow realizations, and final discovery
that it is he, and not anyone else, who is the savior. Anderson
must first be convinced that the realm he inhabits as Neo has provided
him a glimpse of the true reality, while his everyday existence
as Thomas Anderson is actually the false consciousness, the world
of the Matrix in which he senses, but cannot prove, that something
is terribly wrong. This thought tortures him like a "splinter in
the mind."

Neo is contacted first by Trinity, a slightly androgynous female
counterpart to his slightly androgynous masculinity. It is she who
leads Neo to Morpheus. Trinity is an obvious allusion to the biblical
concept of a triune God consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Because of the long-standing patriarchal metaphor for God, it is
quite humorous when Neo says to Trinity, "I always thought you were
a guy." Also of note is the fact that the word "trinity" never actually
appears in the Bible. It is during Neo’s second conversation with
Morpheus, just after he wakes up from being interrogated, that Morpheus
reveals his role as John the Baptist by saying, "You may have been
looking for me for a few years, but I’ve been looking for you for
my whole life." However, Morpheus also plays the role of God the
Father to Neo and the rest of the small band of rebels. He spends
a significant part of the film teaching Neo the nature of "reality"
as opposed to the world of the Matrix. When Morpheus is captured
by the agents, as his body lies there helpless, Trinity says, "No,
he’s much more important than that. He’s like a father to us."

To join Morpheus and Trinity in experiencing the depth of this
true reality, Neo must be born again. As he is jacked in to the
initiation sequence, Cypher tells him, "Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy,
’cause Kansas is going bye-bye." Reeves’ character is literally
born again into the new world in a visually explicit birth from
a biotechnical womb that spits him out like a newborn infant: hairless,
innocent, covered in muck, and eyes wide open in awe. He sees that
he alone, of all the millions of entombed and enwombed humans plugged
in as batteries to the Matrix’s mainframe, has been allowed to break
free of his shell. The wombs are slightly opaque, allowing the inhabitants
to at least glimpse a portion of the reality to which they are enslaved.
The implication is that everyone can be freed, following the example
set by the savior. (There is also a nice 2001 star child
visual reference during this sequence.)

Just prior to his rebirth, Neo turns aside and sees a fragmented
mirror, which becomes whole as he looks into it. He is about to
make the journey into the self, or psyche, and the metaphor of a
shattered universal mirror is one that Huxley and others have also
used. He reaches out and touches the mirror, which then becomes
whole, which nicely references I Corinthians 13:12, "For now we
see through a glass darkly, but then face to face." The mirror then
liquefies and swallows Neo, confirming for us that this is essentially
an inward journey he is making. Upon being reborn, Neo asks Morpheus
why his eyes hurt: "Because you’ve never used them," comes the reply.
Or, as William Blake puts it, "If the doors of perception were cleansed,
everything would appear to us as it is, infinite." In one of the
first scenes, we see Neo sell a software program to a character
named Choi for two grand, to which Choi replies, "You’re my savior,
man, my own personal Jesus Christ." Choi ’s reference in this conversation
to mescaline is a reference to Huxley’s mescaline experiment book
The Doors of Perception. Huxley’s title is drawn from the
William Blake quote and was also subsequently the source for the
name of Jim Morrison’s rock group, The Doors.

In Greek mythology, Morpheus was the god of dreams, and his name
is the linguistic root for words like "morphine" (a drug that induces
sleep and freedom from pain) and "morphing" (using computer technology
to seamlessly transform from one reality to another). This resonates
with the ability of Fishburne’s character to morph back and forth
between the dream world (the "real" world) and the waking world
(the Matrix). Morpheus asks, "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that
you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from
that dream, Neo? How would you know the difference between the dream
world and the real world?" The stage is now set for the film to
equate the dream world with the digital world, the world of pure
consciousness that exists in infinity. It is an equation that works,
because life on the screen is a disembodied life, a virtual existence
where the rules of society and the laws of physics don’t necessarily
apply, which is why online relationships are so intoxicating and
addictive. It’s also one reason why they fail so completely when
the people actually meet. Like a movie version of a book, the real
version of an online person’s self cannot help but disappoint, simply
because the codes and conventions of space and time are so constrictive
of the power of imagination.

As Morpheus tells it, the One has been prophesied, like Jesus
of Nazareth, from time immemorial. The revealer of ultimate truth
is the Oracle, played as a soul-food mama (cf. Meet Joe Black)
with more of a sense of humor than seriousness, who nevertheless
gives Neo the key insight into the nature of fate vs. free will
that is critical to the film’s final twist. That the Oracle is a
woman is also a key ingredient in the film’s theology. The brothers
Tank and Dozer have their biblical precedents in the apostles James
and John, who were also brothers and called the "sons of thunder,"
which makes sense since both a tank and a bulldozer are modern technological
"thunder" makers. But The Matrix is not simply a Christian
allegory; it is a complex parable that pulls strongly from Judaism
and other traditions. In their initial discussion about the One,
both Morpheus and Neo are in cramped quarters wearing what is clearly
the garb of concentration camp victims: rough-textured wool and
blue-striped bed linens. But because Jewish history has not yet
given us a political Messiah, and perhaps because Jesus was himself
Jewish, the Wachowski brothers seem to be comfortable relying on
Jesus’ story as a precedent for their own. When asked if E.T. wasn’t
a retelling of the Christ story, Steven Spielberg said he "resented"
the comparison because he was Jewish. So too might the Wachowski
brothers have inadvertently relied on the only well-known resurrection
messiah story lying around.

And yet critics are saying the film is equally influenced by Zen
Buddhism or eastern mysticism. Many of the lines, and certainly
the martial arts sequences, are certainly all aspects of an eastern
influence. But people often make the mistake of assuming that Judaism
and Christianity are somehow exclusively "western" religions. Both
are situated geographically and historically in Israel, which is
on the Asian continent. The holy city of these two religions is
Jerusalem, which sits in the navel of the world, as the meeting
point of east and west. In other words, Judaism and Christianity
are religions that share and have been influenced by both east and
west, and have influenced both eastern and western philosophies
since time immemorial. Thus, if you think you’re seeing a lot of
Alan Watts’ The Supreme Identity in the film, you probably
are. But Watts isn’t seeing something new by saying that east and
west can be reconciled, he’s simply pointing out what was there
all along.

The Judas character, named Cypher, is sympathetically played by
New Jersey tough guy Joe Pantoliano. Like Judas before him at the
last supper, Cypher accepts his fate as traitor over a meal. Like
Judas, who shares a drink with Christ at the last supper, Cypher
and Neo share a cup while Cypher expresses his doubts about the
whole crusade with the line, "Why oh why didn’t I take the blue
pill?" We see Neo part ways with Cypher by not finishing the drink,
but instead handing the remainder over to Cypher. We know Cypher
is up to no good when he breaks the convention of social hygiene
by finishing Neo’s drink for him after Neo leaves. Cypher also wears
a reptile skin coat, which alludes to the biblical figure of Satan
as serpent. It is Cypher’s doubts about Morpheus’ certainty that
Neo is the One (note the nice anagram of Neo = One) that causes
Cypher to betray the cause, because he’s not certain he’s fighting
on the right side, or at least not on the winning side. There is
a nice mealtime scene, reminiscent both of 2001 and Aliens,
in which Mouse waxes philosophic about the nature, essence, and
ultimate reality of food, which serves to confirm the drudgery of
everyday life for this ragtag team of revolutionaries. The food
scene, and the discussion of the woman in the red dress, confirm
the loneliness and difficulty of life on the Nebuchadnezzar. Like
the faithful of any religion, our apostles are tempted by the Matrix’s
illusions and are often led into daydreaming or fantasizing that
ignorance really can be bliss. This confirms the Christian idea
that the believer really is an alien in this world and is only a
visitor, a transient resident, an alien on a temporary visa. As
the anti-Christian filmmaker Luis Bunuel accurately puts it, "Properly
speaking, there really is no place for the Christian in this world."
Neo’s new life is living proof of this maxim.

It is immensely significant that Cypher’s deal-making meal
with the agents centers around steak. First, meat is the metaphor
that cyberspace inhabitants use to describe the real world: meatspace
is the term they use to describe the non-virtual world, a metaphor
that clearly shows their preference for the virtual realm. Cypher
says that even though he knows the steak isn’t real, it
sure seems like it. The stupidity and superficiality of choosing
blissful ignorance is revealed when Cypher says that when he
is reintegrated into the Matrix he wants to be rich and, "somebody
important, like an actor."
It’s a line you could almost pass over if it wasn’t
so clearly earmarked as the speech of the fool justifying his
foolishness. But meat is also the metaphor that media theorist
Marshall McLuhan uses to describe the tricky distinction between
a medium’s content and its form.
As he puts it, "The ‘content’ of a medium is like the
juicy piece of meat that the burglar throws to distract the watchdog
of the mind." This line illuminates the fact that many people
watching
The Matrix are seeing only the "content" of the kung-fu
scenes and the electronica soundtrack while missing the serious
sermon going on all around them. But it also heightens the point
that the story is making about the Matrix itself, which is designed,
like Huxley’s "brave new world," to oppress you not through
totalitarian force, but through totalitarian pleasure. As Agent
Smith says, "Isn’t
it perfect? Billions of people, just living out their lives, oblivious."
"Steak" is also the password revealed for the website at the film’s
closing credits, though there are nine passwords total to reveal
hidden messages on the website.

Because it’s a Hollywood picture, Jesus has to have a girlfriend,
(as he did in The Last Temptation of Christ), who is fantastically
played by the little-known Carrie-Anne Moss. Her character, Trinity,
is a mix of Mary Magdalene and the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by
her earthly-and-yet celestial relationship with the One. She follows
him everywhere, and the Oracle has told her she would fall in love
with him, and so it is she who represents eternal, infinite, unbounded
love by giving Neo the kiss of Princess Charming at the end with
the line, "You can’t be dead, because I love you." This line may
have had you fighting the gag reflex, but the point is that love
is stronger than death, that God is manifested by a triune love
relationship, and this was simply the best way to show the miraculous
Christ-likeness of Neo. The power of her love to bring him back
from the dead is also foreshadowed by her statement that she is
the "commanding officer" on the ship, indicating her authority over
him. Love is stronger than death, but the film could have shown
this in a better way, even if only by developing their emotional
relationship by an extra five lines each. Then again, if the Wachowskis
are planning two sequels, it would make sense to have them kiss
with about as much passion as Leia kisses Luke in Empire Strikes
Back. This way we won’t be shocked in three years to discover
that they were actually brother and sister, or part of the same
heavenly family, all along. But the important thing to remember
is that Neo really is dead before this, having been riddled with
bullets by Agent Smith. After receiving the kiss, he is resurrected
in the Hollywood equivalent of three days, which is about three
seconds.

Upon rising from the dead, Neo experiences the cosmic revelation
of his identity, similar and yet dissimilar to Superman. Superman
has an Achilles heel in the form of kryptonite and is also powerless
to save his father from dying—despite all his other strengths.
Neo’s realization, however, is that he has no weaknesses, no fatal
flaws, that he is in fact an infinite being. Having had the doors
of perception fully cleansed, Neo can now "see" things as they truly
are—which is in binary code. He looks down the hallway and
sees the three agents as a series of flowing digits, meaning that
he alone is now able to bridge the gap between analog and digital
realm, able to control the digital rather than be controlled by
it. Like the previous messiah that Morpheus alluded to, he is now
able to remake the Matrix as he sees fit. He is a bullet-proof Christ,
not dying for our sins and coming back, but dying for his unwillingness
to believe in his own power, who comes back to life through the
power of someone else’s belief, and who then asks us to join him
in the fight against the Matrix. Like Jesus, he is the intermediary
between our "bound" selves and our free selves. His is the example
we are called on to follow in order to remake the Matrix with him.

A sympathetic understanding of Agent Smith is to assume that
his hatred of humanity was programmed by the A.I. of the Matrix.
This would indicate that the Matrix has learned what humankind
failed to learn, which is how to manage A.I. technology successfully.
But Agent Smith’s "revelation" speech is flawed: man is
obviously a mammal. The fact is that no animal moves instinctively
toward an equilibrium with its environment. Every animal is forced
there by the competition of other lifeforms. Mankind is unique
insofar as it has, alone among species, been able to vanquish
its competition. Agent Smith may have been more accurate when
he referred to man as a cancer. Just as cancer cells are human,
so also human beings are mammals. And Agent Smith, the film makes
clear, also wants to escape the Matrix. He has been infected by
the "virus" of humanity
and is desperate to know the Zion access codes, not so much to
destroy the revolutionaries as to free himself.

At the film’s conclusion, the invitation is clear. The film stops
where it starts, with us staring at a blinking cursor on the computer
screen in Room 303. Neo is making a call to us, sitting out there
in the audience, to join him in fighting the Matrix’s bondage. Like
the final scene in Superman, Neo flies up and out of the
screen as if to help us break free of our bondage, to suggest that
he really is real, to suggest that we really can be free. One interpretation
is that Neo is flying into us the way he flew into Agent Smith,
to liberate us by destroying our preconceptions. In order to understand
our preconceptions, our bondage, our slavery, all we need to know
is one thing.